- #BELGIUM DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY MURDER JAIL TRIAL#
- #BELGIUM DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY MURDER JAIL PROFESSIONAL#
They’ve been blamed for killing Americans in the 1970s and later assassinations and bombings, attacks in which the group now denies being involved. on Thursday after being convicted of attempted murder of a terrorist nature and participation in the. It was formed in 1965 by college students who embraced both Marxism and Islamic governance while seeking to overthrow the ruling shah. Iran summons Belgium envoy after diplomat jailed. The National Council of Resistance of Iran is a part of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, an exiled Iranian opposition group largely based in Albania and Paris.
The fourth defendant, Mehrdad Arefani, was sentenced to 17 years in prison. The ruling confirmed that the explosives were made and tested in Iran. Saadouni was sentenced to 15 years in jail while Naami was handed a 18-year sentence.Īccording to the investigation, Assadi carried the explosives to Austria on a commercial flight from Iran and later handed the bomb over to the pair during a meeting at a Pizza Hut restaurant in Luxembourg. Prosecutors said he was the “operational commander” of the attack and accused him of recruiting the couple - Amir Saadouni and Nasimeh Naami - years before the attack, to obtain information about the opposition. An Iranian diplomat sentenced to 20 years in prison for planning a bomb attack in France has dropped an appeal in Belgium and will serve his sentence, Reuters reported his. Belgium’s state security officers said he worked for the ministry’s so-called Department 312, the directorate for internal security, which is on the European Union’s list of organizations regarded as terrorist. The court said since Assadi was on vacation at the time of his arrest - and not in Austria, where he was accredited - he was not entitled to immunity.Ī note from Belgium’s intelligence and security agency seen by The Associated Press identified him as an officer of Iran’s intelligence and security ministry who operated under cover at Iran’s embassy in Vienna. House of Representatives and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.Īssadi was arrested a day later in Germany and transferred to Belgium. claims diplomatic immunity for ex-Special Forces. It could have caused a sizable explosion and panic in the crowd, estimated at 25,000 people, that had gathered that day in the French town of Villepinte, north of Paris.Īmong dozens of prominent guests at the rally that day were Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani Newt Gingrich, former conservative speaker of the U.S.
#BELGIUM DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY MURDER JAIL PROFESSIONAL#
The embassy didn’t provide a specific date on when Lescouhier’s term will end or name a replacement.Belgium’s bomb disposal unit said the device was of professional quality.
#BELGIUM DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY MURDER JAIL TRIAL#
Assadi, a Vienna-based diplomat who was arrested in Belgium, refused to testify during his trial last year, invoking his diplomatic status. South Korea is a signatory to the Vienna Convention, which grants diplomats and their families protection against criminal prosecution, although the immunity can be voluntarily waived. Assadollah Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Belgian court that rejected his claim of diplomatic immunity. The incident drew widespread anger, prompting thousands of people to sign petitions on South Korea’s presidential website calling for the wife to be expelled from the country. Security camera video showed her shoving and slapping an employee in the face and hitting another on the head. The embassy said Xiang has met privately with the two shop employees and apologized.Īccording to South Korean media, Xiang reacted angrily when a shop employee asked about the jacket she was wearing, suspecting that it could have been stolen.
Lescouhier earlier this month issued an apology on behalf of his wife, saying in an Instagram video that she “might have had her reasons to be angry at the way she was treated in that shop but committing physical violence is totally unacceptable.” However, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said her immunity was only partially waived and she still had protection from criminal trials or punishment.
The Belgian government also waived the diplomatic immunity of Lescouhier’s wife, Xiang Xueqiu, so that she could be investigated by South Korean police, the embassy said in a Facebook post.